This invention relates generally to social networking and, in particular, to a user interface for displaying questions asked and answered by users of a social networking.
Traditional question and answer software systems use a search interface that links into a set of documents that discuss various topics for answering users' questions. For example, a question entered by a user is searched using natural language processing systems to retrieve documents that answer the question. Often, the documents that are presented to the user do not specifically answer the question entered, and instead they simply offer an encyclopedic explanation of the general topic of the question.
User-generated content question and answer systems have emerged in recent years to address this problem. In these systems, a user posts a question to a forum, and one or more other users answer the question. Answers to the question are displayed under the question, often in sequential format. Other systems allow users to post polls which allow other users to select a pre-designated answer. Yet other systems allow users to vote on answers to post questions. In these systems, however, the display of answer data to posted questions is inflexible and lacks social context.